article_arch_0044-8613_2003_num_65_1_3849

Uli Kozok

The Esthetics of Suffering : two Karo Batak Laments from theCollection of Harley Harris BartlettIn: Archipel. Volume 65, 2003. pp. 123-143.

RsumUli KozokL'article prsente deux manuscrits de Sumatra acquis au dbut du XXe sicle par le botaniste amricain Harley Harris Bartlett(1886-1960). Les textes, en langue et criture Batak Karo et inciss sur des tubes de bambou, appartiennent au genre bilang-bilang (lamentations). Ils sont ici transcrits, traduits et accompagns d'un commentaire critique, ainsi que d'une tude sur leconcept du chagrin dans les littratures malaise et Batak Karo.

Citer ce document / Cite this document :

Kozok Uli. The Esthetics of Suffering : two Karo Batak Laments from the Collection of Harley Harris Bartlett. In: Archipel.Volume 65, 2003. pp. 123-143.

doi : 10.3406/arch.2003.3849

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ARTS ET LITTERATURE

Uli Kozok

The Esthetics of Suffering : Two Karo Batak Laments

from the Collection of Harley Harris Bartlett

The two Karo Batak laments discussed below are part of the collection of Harley Harris Bartlett (1886-1960), a professor of botany at the University of Michigan from 1915 until 1955. Bartlett acted as the chairman of the Botany Department from 1922-47, and as Director of the Botanical Garden from 1919 until his retirement. In 1918 he conducted fieldwork with the U.S. Rubber Company in Sumatra, which was aimed at developing high-yield strains of rubber. He became acquainted with the inhabitants of the regions and developed an interest in their language and culture. He returned to Sumatra in 1927 where he continued collecting plants - some of them, including the Pentaphragma bartlettii Merr., were named after him - and ethnographica that are now part of the Bartlett collections of the Logan Museum of Anthropology, Beloit (Wisconsin), and the Michigan Museum of Anthropology, Ann Arbor.

Bartlett was a scholar with a strong interest in linguistics and anthropology. Between 1920 and 1953 he published thirteen essays related to his research in Sumatra, of which eight are concerned with language, literature, and culture (Bartlett 1921; Bartlett 1928a; Bartlett 1929; Bartlett 1930; Bartlett 1934a; Bartlett 1934b; Bartlett 1951 ; Bartlett 1952), and the reminder are on botanical subjects (Bartlett 1926; Bartlett 1928b; Bartlett 1935 ; Bartlett 1940). The quality of Bartlett's scholarship - with no formal training in anthropology - is evident from the fact that all but his earliest anthropological essays were republ- ished thirteen years after his death by the Center for South and Southeast Asian Studies of the University of Michigan (Bartlett 1973).

Archipel 65, Paris, 2003, pp. 123-143

124 Uli Kozok

Bartlett's sister Hazel Bartlett donated a part of the Bartlett collection to the Logan Museum of Anthropology a year after her brother's death. The other part was given to the University of Michigan Museum of Anthropology.

The Bartlett collection includes a number of manuscripts written on tree bark, bamboo, and buffalo bone. Among the bamboo manuscripts are two Karo Batak laments (bilang-bilang). One is written on a tobacco container and is part of the collection of the Logan Museum of Anthropology, catalogue No. 4166 (referred to as Manuscript A), and the other is written on a weaver's shuttle from the collection of the University of Michigan Museum of Anthropology, catalogue No. 48466 (Manuscript B).

Manuscript A The lament is written in standard Karo Batak language and script but dis

plays a number of unconventionally spelled words. It is therefore important to address the spelling of the manuscript, and this can only be done by first giving a short introduction to the Karo script. As with other Batak scripts, the script of the Karo consists of a main set of 19 characters called surat that are complemented by a set of eight diacritic marks called anak ni sur at 'children of the sur at'. Most of the sur at are consonants with an inherent vowel, - a. Only three of the 19 sur at are vowels. These are the sur at I(T*),U(.=.) and the sur at Ha (~o), which can also have the value /a/ in the syllable-initial position, e.g. 'anak'. The diacritic marks represent the vowels (e, , i, o, and u), final nasal and aspirant (rj and h) and the virama (penengen), which deprives the surat of their inherent -a vowel and can be added to the surat of the main set. The diacritics change the value of the surat as demonstrated by the letter ka (t?) : t? k - "too ki - ?? ko - "r?x ku - t>> ke - r? kang - ?? kah - 79- k. Every diacritic has its own name as shown Table 1.

Syllable-initial vowels can be represented by a combination of the surat Ha (wo) and any vowel sign as shown in Table 1. In manuscript A, syllable- initial HI and lui are normally represented by Ha plus the respective diacritic instead of using the surat I and U. The latter (.=.) is not used at all, and (~) is used only twice (in lines 4 and 27). It is, however, a quite common feature of the Karo script, that the surat I and U are used sparingly or not at all. 0)

The surat Nga (< ) can only be used in the syllable-initial position and can never be muted by the penengen because the diacritic /ng/ (kebincaren) must be used in the syllable-final position. This rule is frequently violated in manuscript A where the surat Nga is used in syllable-final position : Pasang in line 11 is written *-< - where the kebincaren should have been used : 7r . This is not a single occurrence, but appears throughout the text :

1. In manuscript B, however, the letters ~ and i. are always used.

Archipel 65, Paris, 2003

Illustration non autorise la diffusion

Two Karo Batak Laments 125

Manuscript A Collection of the Beloit College, Logan Museum of Anthropology Catalogue No. 4166


126 Uli Kozok

Table 1. Diacritics

Ketlngen

Kelawan

Ketolongen

Sikurun

Kebereten

Kebincaren

Kejeringen

Penengen

Value

i

0

u

e

ng

h

Sound value

i

0

u

rj

h

Form and position

O

Co or O=

ci or C?

OX

O>

oot&oo > v9>o or wo>o

2. Regularly omitted nasals are put into square brackets. 3. Letters written in the manuscript that are not rendered according to the modern spelling convention are placed in parentheses.



Since the writer uses this unconventional spelling in all syllables with syllable-final /ng/ where the vowel is Id (i.e. where we have a sequence of Sl- S2-D1-D2W where S2 = Nga, Dl = kebereten D2 = penengen) it can be concluded that it was done purposely. This is confirmed by the fact that the writer used the conventional spelling in syllables with syllable-final /ng/ where the vowel is not Id ; Sembiring (7 occurrences), utang (3 occurrences), tandang (2 occurrences), and Ginting (2 occurrences) are spelled correctly, and the correct spelling is also used for bilang-bilang, buang, muang, sukapiring, terang, and sirang. Considering that the writer consistently used the conventional spelling in these cases, it is surprising that he spelled nimbang in line 12 with the character Nga followed by the penengen.

This is not the only manuscript in which syllable-final /ng/ is rendered by the combination of Nga and penengen, but these cases are extremely rare. This manuscript is especially interesting because its author systematically violated spelling conventions.

The Dutch scholar Petrus Voorhoeve transliterated manuscript A during his America journey in 1979. (5) Voorhoeve 's transliteration and mine only differ on a few minor points. Voorhoeve read anakber instead of anakberu (line 8), sipating instead of sipati (line 16), and picesnya instead of picetna in line 19.

The diacritic that should have been sikurun in anakberu (line 8) is not very clear (it looks more like a short line rather than a cross). Its position clearly shows that it cannot be the ketlngen - therefore ruling out a reading as anakber.

The small horizontal line above the last sur at of the word sipati in line 16 was interpreted by Voorhoeve as being the kebincaren. The line is, however, too far to the left to justify a reading as sipating. No other reading of this horizontal line is possible, so it can be assumed that it was placed by mistake.

The last surat of the word that was interpreted by Voorhoeve as pices, is clearly a Itl and not an Isl. I have also based my interpretations of the script on the contextual meaning and all three words make perfect sense in their respective contexts.

Apart from the unconventional spelling discussed above, the manuscript contains a few minor spelling errors. Mehuli is wrongly spelled muhuli in line 7, but the correct spelling is used in line 6 and also in line 17. Mingko-ingko in line 4 is probably a dialectical variant of mangko-angko. I could not find a reference for ingko in any Batak dictionary and the spelling mango-angko is

4. S=surat, D= diacritic 5. The transliteration is part of the Collectie P. Voorhoeve in the Oriental Collections Legatum Warnerianum of the Universiteitsbibliotheek Leiden (Netherlands).


128 Uli Kozok

frequently used in the same context in other manuscripts. The omission of the second /k/ (r?-) in the word kutaktaki is apparently a spelling error.

The transliteration of these manuscripts follows the system outlined in an earlier work (Kozok 2000). Transliteration 1 is a letter-for-letter, word-for- word rendering of the text. The second transliteration corrects the few obvious mistakes mentioned above, structures the text into semantic units, and adapts it to the modern spelling convention of the Karo language. Texts written in Karo Batak script typically share a number of features that are not rendered according to the modern spelling convention. This includes the use of the glide consonants Wa and Ya in vowel sequences, e.g. iyo and buwang that are now spelled io and buang, and the omission of prenasalization, e.g. da instead of nda, niku for ningku etc. The prefix er- is usually spelled re- (^5>), but not always as we will see in the discussion of manuscript B. (6)

The Karo script conserved a number of archaisms such as the spelling sifmjbiring for the clan Sembiring, the use of the passive prefix ni- and preposition ni (both are now always i), the use of the genitive marker nu (now always ni), and the suffix -an (instead of -en). (7)

Manuscript A represents a fairly typical lament in that it uses a number of formulaic expressions that can be found in many other bilang-bilang. It begins with the standard opening formula maka io ari kut bilang-bilang - an archaic phrase that cannot be readily translated - in which the lament genre is specified. The opening formula has a number of optional extensions of which three are found here : The first is the mentioning of the writing material, here 'oil bamboo'. The second extension is in line 2, which by itself can carry its own extension that is found here in line 3. The third extension of the opening formula is contained in lines 4 and 5.

The opening formula reveals what Karo laments are about - the insignificance of man in nature as expressed through the allegory of the thick earth and the vast sky, and the inevitability of pengindo - destiny or fate.

Karo society was even more strongly defined by interpersonal kinship relations at the time when the manuscript was written - probably in the second decade of this century - than it is now. An individual only existed by having anakberu-senina, literally 'wife-taker and clan-mates', which is an institution of assigned kinsmen whose importance cannot be underestimated - without them an individual could not function socially and was legally incompetent. (g)

6. For a more detailed description of the Karo spelling see Kozok (1999 ; 2000a). 7. It is interesting to note that the writer used the preposition ni in the opening formula only, but not in the text itself where it is always rendered as i. Archaic forms are apparently best preserved in stereotypic formula that change little over time. 8. For a thorough study of the anakberu-senina system and its decline after the onset of colonization see Westenberg (1914).


Two Karo Batak Laments 1 29

This lament depicts the worst of all scenarios - the narrator had been expelled by his own clan in the wrung (federation of villages) of Sukapiring in the Karo highlands. He had to leave his homeland not only because he was a highly indebted gambler but also because he had lost the trust of his anakberu-senina. He then addressed in direct speech another male of the Karo-Karo clan and asked him for advice about how his fate could be changed to the better regarding his high gambling debts. (9) The Karo-Karo proposed that they should go to the Malay lowlands (ngkah - to go downstream always refers to the Malay east coast) - the traditional destination of those who have been expelled from their clan. Since the verb tegu 'lead' is used, it can be assumed that they intended to sell horses in the lowlands. 0) Horses bread in the Batak high lands, and especially from the island Samosir in Lake Toba, were in high demand among the Malays and were traded on the east coast of Sumatra and even on the Malay peninsula. Arriving in the lowlands (jah) the horses disappeared^11) In his despair the narrator prayed to the ancestor spirits (bgu) offering betel quid (cibal belo), the simplest and most frequent offering given to ancestor spirits. (12) Through the help of the ancestor spirits he finally found his horses.

At this stage a third person of the Ginting clan advised him to take his horses back to the highlands. Why he did not want to sell them or could not sell them remains unclear. He replies that he cannot bring the horses back to the highlands because of his high debts.

The main reason for debt was gambling, which was reported to be extremely widespread in pre-modern and early modern Karo society. The most famous game was the main judi, a kind of roulette with six digits, rouge and noir (Wijngaarden 1894a : 61). Missionary Wijngaarden reports that many gamblers spent months wandering from place to place. Gambling debts were a common cause of theft and even homicide. Sons ruined their parents, who - as long as they still had money - paid the debts of her children because it was considered a disgrace if a family member was put into the stock. According to Wijngaarden (1894b), it even happened that gamblers sold their spouses and children as bonded laborers, but of course gam-

9. The person of the Karo-Karo clan is addressed as mama 'mother's brother'. It can therefore be assumed that the wife of the Sembiring is from the Karo-Karo clan. 10. Before the road to Medan was established in 1907 the only path that could be passed by horse was the Sepuluh Dua Kuta pass. 11. Reference to frequent horse theft in the pre-colonial society is made in another lament - Ms. 1 149 of the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin. A description of this manuscript can be found in Kozok (2000a). 12. The quid consist of a small piece of the betel nut (areca catechu), wrapped in betel leaf (piper betel), with mineral lime usually added as a catalyst. Betel is a light stimulant drug that is enjoyed by Karo men and spirits likewise.


130 Uli Kozok

biers themselves could end up as bonded laborers when their family was unwilling to pay them out of the stock.

The lament is written on a bamboo container made of buluh minak or oil bamboo, which has a dark yellow shiny epidermis. This is the sort of bamboo that is most commonly used for tobacco containers (tabung pertimbakori), which are usually covered with a wooden lid. O3) Tobacco was consumed by both sexes as a condiment to the betel quid. According to the missionaries Neumann and Joustra, who published a few bilang-bilang in the beginning of the last century, Karo laments are always love laments - even when this is not apparent from the text (Joustra 1902; Neumann 1929; Neumann 1930; Neumann 1933). The tobacco containers were presented to the beloved as a token (tanda) or proof of affection in the custom of courtship (adat naki-nak)SXA) As I have shown in an earlier publication (Kozok 2000a) this was certainly not the only function of the genre. Many laments can be interpreted as having a protective and preventive function in that they allow an individual to ward off one's ill fate by writing it onto the (sometimes personified) bamboo using the Batak script, which by itself already possesses strong magical power.

Manuscript B This manuscript provides a good example of a love lament. It addresses

the beloved, a woman of the Tarigan clan. The immediate recipient of the lament is, however, not the beloved but an unnamed person who is addressed as silih, literally 'brother-in-law' - a common term of address for males. In pre-colonial Batak society, literacy was restricted to men only, and love laments had to be read to the beloved through an intermediary.

This is one of few manuscripts written on a shuttle made of bamboo, 31 cm long, and 2.6 cm in diameter. Of more than 120 laments that I have seen, only four are written on shuttles (tuldak) and three of those are love laments. (15) With its phallic shape a tuldak is symbol of masculinity, and the gift of such an object to the beloved certainly has an intended erotic component.

13. The Logan Museum container does not have a cover. It is possible that it was lost. Even if it had one it would not fit anymore because the bamboo is split between lines 34 and 35, which fortunately does not affect the readability of the manuscript. 14. Besides tobacco containers betel-lime containers were equally frequent used as carriers of laments. 15. The fourth manuscript can be disregarded since it is one of the 'historical laments', in which the 'new order' of the colonial regime is criticized. Although written on traditional instruments such as shuttles and betel-lime containers they constitute a modern expression of the genre, and are very likely detached from the lament's original social context as part of a courting ritual.


Illustration non autorise la diffusion


I published this manuscript with a German translation in my PhD thesis. The transliteration was based on a transliteration made by Mary Margaret Steedly, who was so kind to transliterate the manuscript for me. It is only now that I have been able to check the transliteration. There are a few minor differences in the transliteration. Steedly 's transliteration has noted fewer mistakes made by the writer of the lament - likely the result of an unconscious instant correction at the time of transliterating the text, and for some reasons we arrived at different line breaks. The total number of lines is 23 and not 19.

Manuscript B Collection of the University of Michigan Museum of Anthropology

Catalogue No. 48466

Steedly noted that the writer omitted the letter /na/ in line 6 when he wrote seni[na]ku. A similar omission is found in line 22 : ka[ta]ku. Perpadayane ( *=>> -^-c^">) in line 21 is most likely a misspelling of perpadyen ( =>> ~-"c-) = perpandn. In addition to these mistakes I found twice the unconventional spelling karahbaban instead of karababan (lines 14 and 18), and an omission of one character in line 19 : ni[ku]. Steedly skipped two words (both of no importance in as far as the comprehension of the text is concerned), namely giya in line 13 and nageri in line 17. Other minor differences are that Steedly read torjgal rather than togal (line 7), and karangen instead of kerangen.

In line 3 we find two different spellings for erlajar, namely relajar (s=5>

132 Uli Kozok

of the prefix er- and the base lajar. In order to facilitate the writing of this frequently occurring prefix the Karo arrived at the convention to spell the prefix re (SS5>), which is far more economic than the rather complicated rendering as (h)er- (wo^=5>-).

The writing used is standard Karo Batak writing, which is very similar to the other Batak scripts. The first Batak people to use the script were the Mandailing, where the script was originally developed. Mandailing is the only Batak dialect in which the sound /ny/ occurs, which is represented by the letter -o&--cc7r>-), emas (wo>xc"2"-) or emmas (ato- zcTT'). The writer chose the second option, which is only found in a few other manuscripts. Otherwise the spelling of this manuscript follows the same conventions as outlined above.

The shuttle is intended as a gift to the beloved (Tarigan) of the first-person-narrator (Karo-Karo). He hopes that she will take up weaving and also plaiting so that the plaited mats can serve as the meeting place for his anakberu-senina. Even today many Karo still use plaited pandanus mats - chairs were introduced by the Dutch in the early 20th century and mattresses even later. Plaited mats also constituted an important part of the marriage gifts bestowed by the bride-takers. As indicated in line 9, the man of the Karo-Karo clan is apparently in conflict with his anakberu-senina and hopes that the marriage with the Tarigan woman might help reconcile him with his family.

He uses the popular simile of shimmering heat waves to describe his state of social desolation. The heat waves that dance in the air are not attached to anything. So is his fate - being deprived from the support of his people ; like the refracted light rays he floats around drifting aimlessly through life with nobody to rely on. Moreover he is an only child, a common theme in Karo Batak laments, and therefore cannot find support from his immediate siblings. He sees himself as exiled, forced to wander through the mountainous forests that separate the Karo highland from the Malay east coast.

16. Pronounced /ch/ as in check.



The east coast, here described as the gathering place of the ill fated, was the main destination for those who were forced to leave the Karo highlands. Concluding the lament, he uses the simile of little scraps of precious metals that are carefully gathered by the goldsmith. He compares this with his own scattered journey where there will be no place for him to settle.

The two texts from the Bartlett collection are special in so far as they are to my knowledge the only Karo Batak laments in American collections. Worldwide the number of Karo Batak laments is at least 125 (Kozok 2000a). They consist of love and destiny laments, but also of short text fragments, that served either as spelling aids to learn the Karo alphabet, or as magical devices (Kozok 2000b). Another interesting subgenre is the "historical" lament of the early 20th century, in which the writer complains about the changes that Dutch rule has brought to the Karo highlands after its annexation in 1904. The two laments of the Bartlett collection give only a small insight into the rather complex nature of the genre. They are, however, representative of the genre lament in that they are fairly typical love and destiny laments, which constitute the vast majority of Karo laments.

As a matter of fact the themes that have been brought forward in these two laments, occur time and again. One of the standard themes is that of the orphan who lost his parents at an early age. He became a gambler, and lost all his money, and was finally expelled by his family. In composing a lament the writer can choose out of a limited number of themes in form of formulaic phrases, similes, and pantun. It is evident from the formulaic character of the laments that they are rooted in the oral tradition. The receiver of such a lament knows of course that the story is fictitious :

"It is a strange performance, in which everything is done to create a feeling of longing and pity. Both parties know quite well that the whole story is made up, but that doesnt matter. What is important is to achieve a certain ambience, an atmosphere where tears will be shed".(17> (Neumann 1933 : 184)

A successful performance in creating a sentimental feeling was apparently more important than the content of the lament. It is certainly no coincident that the contemporary popular music of the Karo distributed on audiocassette is set in precisely the same mood - joyful songs are virtually unknown. Popular song titles include Aku kalak me sera 'I am an ill-fated person', Seh kal suina 'So painful' or Erkadiola 'Regret'. Young people not only listen to these songs, they play them on the guitar, the most popular musical instrument of European origin. Songs are, however, rarely sung as they are on the

17. De voordracht ist eigenaardig, daar ailes er op berekend is om een gevoel van smart, van medelijden op te wekken. Beide partijen weten heel goed dat het geheele verhaal gefingeerd is. Maar dat doet er niet toe, men wenscht in een stemming te komen, in een stemming waar- bij veel tranen vloeien.


134 UliKozok

cassette. The singer will use his own clan name and not the one that was originally used on the tape. Of course he will also adjust the woman's clan name in case it is a song about unhappy love.

M. Salleh has drawn our attention to the esthetic of sorrow (nestapa ) that has played an important role especially in the early phase of Malay literature. The misery of the lonesome wanderer in a foreign land, the suffering of unhappy love affair, are popular themes not only in the hikayat literature, but also in the popular genre of the pantun. The audience can easily identify with the protagonist and the general misery of the story, which makes it attractive. The audience is emotionally touched by the narrative that soothes their own suffering, relieves their worries. It is thus not only attractive but also norm- forming with a didactical quality. The nestapa concept is extensive and covers a wide range of emotions.

" Many narratives attempt to touch on almost all of these shades of misery in order to paint the complex nature of the dark experience of nestapa. Though essentially human in its fictional manifestation this is a sorrow that has cosmic connotations, and therefore with distinct religious implications". (Salleh 1993 : 6)

Nestapa can either be human-induced or of divine origin. A similar nestapa concept does also exist among the Karo and is best manifested in Karo laments. The religious connotation is already apparent from the name that was given to the genre : bilang-bilang. In Warneck's Toba Batak dictionary we find "pinter bilang (or just bilang), an exclamation uttered at the beginning of a dispute to ask the gods to decide which party is right. The Batak belief that the outcome of every battle is determined by divine justice ; marbilang remonstrate; (...) marbilanghon (...) curse, condemn, swear". (18> (Warneck 1977) Bilang in the meaning of curse is also contained in the Karo phrase kebilangen dibata 'cursed by the gods'. I also found erbilang in a manuscript that in its context can only be translated as 'to curse'. (19>

The Karo equivalent to nestapa is kiniseran. Sera and serana 'suffer', and the adjective mesera are usually complimented by sui 'pain' (sera- suina). Emotional pain is perceived through the liver (ate). In 125 laments I found about 400 occurrences of at me sui 'the suffering heart' not including the numerous other terms that describe suffer and pain. A synonym of at is pusuh 'heart', which can be picet 'glum', rabut 'confused', cda 'broken, la pr 'without order' or la temb 'uncertain' so that one becomes a perliah.

18. "Pinter bilang (oder nur bilang), ruft man beim Beginn des Streits; man bittet damit die Gtter, recht zu wgen, auf wessen Seite das Recht ist. Nach bat.[akscher] Auffassung ist jedes Gefecht ein Gottesgericht ; marbilang jemand Vorhaltungen machen; (...) marbilanghon (...) einen verfluchen, einem fluchen". 19. Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, No. 1 146. Ola pusuhndu erbilang -bilang nandangi nandta si mupus 'don't curse the mother that gave birth to us'.



Liah 'miserable' and perliah 'a miserable person' frequently occur in both of the manuscripts from the Bartlett collection (A Line 13, 24, B 11, 24).

All human suffering is ultimately caused by one's fate (pengindo), which in most cases is not good (la mehuli). According to Karo mythology the still unborn is in the seventh month of pregnancy asked by dibata 'God' to choose its own fate by picking one of the leaves of the tree of life where the person's fate is inscribed. After selecting the leaf of fate the person is asked seven times to confirm that this is the desired fate, and is given the opportunity to select a different leaf. Pengindo is thus not something that is prescribed by higher nature but something requested (mindo) by each individual. Other synonyms for pengindo also point to the self-determination of one's fate : pudun 'agreement' or jandi 'promise'. Fate is thus literally 'something that has been requested'. The Karo say that children cry after being born because they already regret what they have requested.

According to a legend a person once complained to dibata why he had to be given such a miserable fate. God listened to him and gave him the chance to change his fate. God created him again, and in the seventh month of pregnancy dibata asked him what fate he would like to chose this time. He chose precisely the same fate that he had already chosen the first time !

Transliteration and Translation of Mss. A and B

Manuscript A

Transliteration 1

1. maka hiyo hari kut bilarj-bilarj nu buluh 2. minak hda si mula-mula tubuh ni ba 3. bo taneh mekapal hda ni teruh lanit 4. si miko Iko hda lako nisurati ma 5. ma hanak sibirirj mergana hda nuri 6. nuriken periido la mehuli ma 7. ka la muhuli niku haku nibu 8. warj buarj hanakberu seninaku hi 9. taneh sukapirirj dad haminna muwarj 10. p hiya labo rekit kitken hu 11. tarj kupasan rekit kitken haku 12. la beluh nibari nibani hukurna 13. hda dalanna muwarj seninaku hdim 14. perban haku liyah kal ka 15. haku dub rejudi kutataki ku 16. sipati duriari terarj kutera den 17. na maka mehuli diy a maka menu


136 Uli Kozok

18. li mama di bagi hda hutarjku pi 19. cetna mama bag ka me nina anak 20. -sibirirj mergana nataken kata 21 . man hanak karo karo mergana si 22. tegu kudat henkah bag me 23. nina hanak karo karo mergana nata 24. ken kata h maka henkah seh p 25. jah kuda la ka he dat kudana da 26. d hi je maka naktak hiluh hanak 27. sibirirj mergana I ja kin p te 28. -ridah liyahku nat hanak sibi 29. rirj mergana di kalak henka 30. h tadarj lako hecari di mama hanak 3 1 . sibirirj mergana tadarj lako si 32. rarj ras hanak nipupus tanar 33. kin bgu si hehgo mat hda 34. kucibalken belo dat kal 35. kudaku hda nina hanak sibirirj 36. mergana maka hanak gitirj mer 37. gana fiataken kata man mama ha 38. nak sibirirj mergana tegu 39. kuda na naken nina hanak gi 40. tirj mergana. la n tertegu 41. -nakeh hutarjku belarj nina

Transliteration 2

1 . Maka io ari kut bilang-bilang nu buluh minak nda 2. si mula-mula tubuh ni babo taneh mekapal nda 3. ni teruh langit si mingko-ingko nda 4. lako nisurati mama anak Simbiring mergana nda 5. nuri-nuriken pengindo la mehul

6. Maka la mehuli ningku 7. aku nibuang-buang anakberu-seninaku 8. i taneh Sukapiring ndad

9. Aminna muang p ia 10. labo erkit-kitken utang kupasang 11. erkit-kitken aku la beluh nimbang-nimbangi ukurna nda 12. dalanna muang seninaku 13. dim perban aku liah kal ka aku ndub erjudi



14. Kutaktaki kusipati dungari terang. 15. " Kutera dengnga maka mehuli ndia, maka mehuli, mama, 16. di bagi nda utangku picetna, mama"

17. bag ka me nina anak Sembiring mergana 18. ngataken kata man anak Karo-Karo mergana

19. " Sitegu kudant ngkah " 20. bag me nina anak Karo-Karo mergana ngataken kata. 21. maka ngkah seh p jah kuda 22. la ka nge dat kudana ndad

23. I je maka naktak iluh anak Simbiring mergana. 24. I ja kin p teridah liahku nat anak Simbiring mergana 25. di kalak ngkah tandang lako ncari 26. di mama anak Simbiring mergana tandang lako sirang ras anak nipupus

27. Tangar kin bgu si enggo mat : 28. nda kucibalken belo 29. dat kal kudaku nda 30. nina anak Simbiring mergana.

3 1 . Maka anak Ginting mergana ngataken kata 32. man mama anak Simbiring mergana : 33. " Tegu kuda na nangkeng "

34. nina anak Ginting mergana. 35. " La n tertegu nangkeng, utangku belang " nina.

Translation

1 . This is a lament written on oil bamboo, 2. that originally grew on this thick earth 3. under the wide-stretched sky 4. to be written by the son of the Sembiring clan 5. to tell about his ill fate.

6. Ill-fated, I say, 7. because I have been expelled by my people 8. in the district of Sukapiring.

9. The reason that they expelled me 10. was not because of my debts, 1 1 . but because I was unable to weigh their thoughts 12. that's why they expelled me, 13. and because I had no luck in gambling.

14. I thought about it, I weighted it, now it is clear


138 UliKozok

15. " How can it become good, uncle " 16. When I am pressured by my gambling debts " ? 17. said the son of the Sembiring clan, 18. to the son of the Karo-Karo clan.

19. " Let's bring our horses downstream ", 20. said the son of the Karo-Karo clan. 21. So we went down, and the horses reached the downstream country 22. but then the horses disappeared.

23. There the son of the Sembiring clan shed his tears, 24. wherever I go, I will be ill-fated, thought the son of the Sembiring clan, 25. other people go downstream in order to earn a living 26. but I go in order to become separated from my children.

27. " Listen, you ancestor spirits " : 28. " Here is my betel offering ". 29. I got my horses back, 30. said the son of the Sembiring clan.

31. So the son of the Ginting clan said 32. to the son of the Sembiring clan : 33. " Bring your horses back to the highlands ", 34. said the son of the Ginting clan. 35. " I can't bring them back to the highlands, because my debts are too

many " I said.

Notes

3 Other manuscripts often include after this another extension of the opening formula, e.g. " it (the bamboo) was slashed by the son of the N.N. clan to become a tobacco container" (cf. Ms. B).

14 Sipat is the amount of time left before one dies. Sipati is not listed in any dictionary, but informants assured me that it is used synonym to ukuri and taktaki. I assume that sipati literally means 'to measure something' (which is also one of the meanings of taktaki), and thus 'to weigh, think about, reflect, contemplate'.

25 The meaning of ncari is to earn a living by working regularly as a trader, merchant, or as an employee, but not through working in the field. During the second half of the 19th century the Malay east coast of the sultanates of Deli and Langkat was transformed into a huge plantation belt nicknamed the Dollar Land. The indigenous people (Karo and Malay) refused to work on the plantations as indented laborers (for which Chinese and Javanese coolies were imported) but were readily



available as craftsmen building tobacco sheds etc.

27 The word tangar 'listen ! ' is exclusively used in the evocation of spirits.

35 Another spelling convention is that the diphthong /ai/ is usually rendered as as here in n (=nai). Compare also Ms. B line 11, 24, 27, and 29. Another example is ap (=apai) in linelO of Ms. B.

Manuscript B : Michigan Museum of Anthropology No. 48466

Transliteration 1

1. maka Iyo bilan bilarj nu buluh belak lako nitabah 2. hanak karo karo mergana man tuldak turarj beru tarigan 3. --maka tergemmes kal kamu herlajar bayu relajar 4. retenun ho turarj beru tariganku turi turiyanna si maka bag niku tah re 5. -kite kitken bekas turarj relajar bayu narirj p papagi maka jupan

hanakberu 6. seniku di laharj herjgo kal me kidah anakberu seninaku muwarj

muwarj maka hem 7. pak hap kal ne p diya papagi perdalan hanak karo karo mergana si

togal senina 8. si perliyah la n terralarj hda ho silih si no0g surat kataku maka

Ula kal kamu 9. megelut ho silih si nog kata nu surat bekas nurati p kidah buw

labo ma 10. ta h kal me man beluhan nuri nurikenca man turarj beru tari gan hanak 11. si nuda turi turiyanna si 0 manca bag niku bahan herj go kal me

kidah si ka 12. rahbaban 0 kami turarjdu bagi supamana pergaturj hendek hendek

ciger U 13. wari bana dagina gaturj giya nita la kidah retinali dagina cibal giya

nita la kidah 14. relibas dagi bag ka kin me kidah si karah0baban hanak karo karo rner 15. gana si perliyah la n teralarj hda ho turarj maka di hda la n kal

he kuwakap 16. lolo 0 0 la n sudat la mabur perdalan kami turarj du lako nadani ta 17. neh nageri nu jah jah kerahen la n reduru dad ho turarj kernana

nije0 18. kal he henca kepulunan si terbaba penido la mehuli ho turarj beru 19. -tariganku turi turiyenna si manca bag ni dagina di rutuk ru 20. -tuk nu pirak buntar hemmas megersi lit ka he kepulu 21 . henna ni bas perpadayane ho turarj di perdalanku mabur hda ni 22. ja ka he diya pagi lit kepuluhanna ho turarj beru tarigan kaku


140 Uli Kozok

hanak si nu 23. da hda kata

Transliteration 2

1. Maka io bilang-bilang nu buluh belangk 2. lako nitabah anak Karo-Karo mergana 3. man tuldak turang beru Tarigan 4. maka tergemes kal kamu erlajar bayu, erlajar ertenun 5. O turang beru Tariganku

6. Turi-turinna si maka bag ningku 7. tah erkit-kitken bekas turang erlajar bayu naring p papagi 8. makajumpan anakberu-seni[na]ku 9. di lahang enggo kal me kidah anakberu-seninaku muang-muang 10. maka empak ap kal nge p ndia papagi perdalan anak Karo-Karo

mergana 11. si tonggal senina si perliah la n teralang nda

12. O silih si ngog surat kataku 13. maka ula kal kamu megelut 14. O silih si ngog kata nu surat 15. bekas nurati p kidah bu 16. labo mata kal me man beluhen nuri-nurikenca 17. man turang beru Tarigan, anak si nguda

18. Turi-turinna si manca bag ningku 19. bahan enggo kal me kidah si karababan kami turangndu 20. bagi sumpamana pergantung endek-endek ciger uari bana 2 1 . dagina gantung gia ninta la kidah ertinali 22. dagina cibal gia ninta la kidah erlimbas dagi 23. bag ka kin me kidah si karababan anak Karo-Karo mergana 24. si perliah la n teralang nda 25. O turang

26. Maka di nda la n kal nge kuakap lolo 27. la n sundat la mambur perdalan kami turangndu 28. lako nandangi taneh nu jah 29. kerangen la n erduru ndad 30. O turang

3 1 . Kernana ni je kal nge ngenca kepulungen 32. si terbaba pengindo la mehuli 33. O turang beru Tariganku



34. Turi-turinna si manca bag ni[ngku] dagina 35. di runtuk-runtuk nu pirak bentar emas megersi[ng] 36. lit ka nge kepulungenna ni bas perpandn 37. O turang 38. di perdalanku mambur nda 39. ni ja ka nge ndia pagi lit kepulunganna 40. O turang beru Tarigan ka[ta]ku anak si nguda nda kata...

Translation

1 . This is a lament on belangk bamboo 2. slashed by the son of the Karo-Karo clan 3. to become a shuttle for my sister of the Tarigan clan 4. so that you will love to learn how to plait, how to weave 5. O my sister of the Tarigan clan

6. I say this because 7. the product of your plaiting might become the bridge 8. where my people will meet 9. if not, I see that my people will expel me 10. and were then shall I go, the son of the Karo-Karo clan 11. the only child, the most unlucky person

12. O friend, who reads the letters of my words 1 3 . don 't take offence 14. O friend, who reads the letters of my words 15. much is, I see, that I wrote 16. not the eyes [but] I have to be able to tell it 17. to the sister of the Tarigan clan, the youngest child

18. The reason why I say this is 19. because I can see the burden that I, your brother, have to carry 20. it's like the shimmering heat that is hanging in the middle of the day 21. we can't say it hangs since there is no rope to see 22. we can't say it lays because it does not leave any trace 23. this is, I see, the burden that the son of the Karo-Karo clan has to carry 24. the most unlucky person 25. O sister

26. So there was no other way 27. it was inevitable that I, your brother, had to leave 28. traveling to the downstream land 29. passing through the endless forest 30. O sister


142 Uli Kozok

3 1 . Because that is the place where all those meet 32. who carry ill fate 33. O my sister of the Tarigan clan.

34. The reason why I say this, is that 35. small parts of white silver and yellow gold 36. will be gathered by the goldsmith 37. O sister 38. when I have to wander far 39. will there be a place to settle ? 40. O sister of the Tarigan clan, say I, the youngest child.

Notes

1 It is a rare occurrence that the opening formula is reduced to maka io only.

4 I have translated bayu as "plait", i.e. "weave a mat", and ertenun as "weave", i.e. weave textiles.

38 Lit. " as far as my over-flown journey is concerned".

References

Bartlett, Harley Harris, 1921, The grave post (anisan) of the Batak of Asahan, Papers of the Michigan Academy of Science, Arts and Letters, 1 : 1-58.

, 1926, Sumatran plants collected in Asahan and Karoland, with notes on their vernacular names, Papers of the Michigan Academy of Science, Arts and Letters, VI : 15-17.

, 1928a, Color nomenclature in Batak and Malay, Papers of the Michigan Academy of Science, Arts and Letters, X : 1-52.

, 1928b, The fast-disappearing flora of Sumatra, Explorations and Field-Work of the Smithsonian Institution in 1927, pp. 93-100.

, 1929, The Labors of the Datoe : Part I. An annotated list of religious, magical and medical practices of the Batak of Asahan, Papers of the Michigan Academy of Science, Arts and Letters, XII : 1-74.

, 1930, The Labors of the Datoe : Part II. Directions for the ceremonies. Papers of the Michigan Academy of Science, Arts and Letters, XIII : 1-34.

, 1934a, The Problem of Negrito and " Vedda" elements in the population of Sumatra, Proceedings of the 5th Pacific Science Congress, pp. 2851-2862.

, 1934b, The sacred edifices of the Batak of Sumatra, Vol. 4, Occasional Contributions of the Museum of Anthropology of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

, 1935, The Batak Lands of North Sumatra, from the standpoint of recent American botanical collections, University of the Philippines Natural and Applied Science Bulletin, 4 : 211-323.

, 1940, Sumatran palms. I. Calamoxleya, a subgenus of Calamus typified by C. Leiospathus, a new species related to C. Oxleyanus. Papers of the Michigan Academy of Science, Arts and Letters, XXV : 3-12.



, 1951, A tiger charm with inscribed invocation, from the Pardembanan Batak of Silo Maradja, Asahan, Sumatra, Ethnos, 1-2 : 71-83.

, 1952, A Batak and Malay chant on rice cultivation, with introductory notes on bilingual- ism and acculturation in Indonesia, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 96 (6) : 629-652.

, 1973, The Labors of the Datoe, and other essays on the Bataks of Asahan (North Sumatra), Vol. 5, Michigan Papers on South and Southeast Asia, Ann Arbor : Center for South and Southeast Asian Studies, University of Michigan.

Joustra, Meint, 1902, lets over bataksche litteratuur, Mededelingen van wege het Nederlandsch Zendelinggenootschap, 46 : 357-372.

Kozok, Uli, 1999, Warisan leluhur. Sastra lama dan aksara Batak. Naskah dan dokumen Nusantara 17, Jakarta : cole franaise d'Extrme-Orient, Kepustakaan Populer Gramedia.

, 2000b, On writing the not-to-be-read : literature and literacy in a pre-colonial 'tribal' society. Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land en Volkenkunde, 156 (1) : 33-55.

, 2002, Die Bataksche Klage : Toten-, Hochzeits- und Liebesklagen in oraler und schriftlicher Tradition (2 Vols.) [Electronic Dissertation]. Staats- und Universittsbibliothek Carl von Ossietzky Hamburg, 2000a [cited 6.7.2002]. Available fromhttp://allegro.sub.uni-hamburg.de/emedien?dm=ffetmpl=emd- diss.html&hos=uni&fb=10.

Neumann, J.H., 1929, De bilang-bilang. Feestbundel, Bataviaasch Genootschap van Kunsten en Wetenschappen, 2 : 215-222.

, 1930, Poestaka Ginting, Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde, 70 : 1-51. , 1933, Bilang-bilang II, Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde, 73 : 184-

215. Salleh, Muhammad Haji, 1993, Narrating nestapa : early Malay aesthetics of sorrow,

Leiden : Rijks Universiteit. Warneck, Johannes, 1977, Toba-Batak - Deutsches Wrterbuch, Edited by R. Roolvink, Den

Haag : Martinus Nijhof. , 1914, Adatrechtspraak en adatrechtpleging der Karo Batak's, Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land

en Volkenkunde, 69 : 453-600. Wijngaarden, K.J., 1894a, De zending onder de Karau-Bataks (Deli). Een en ander uit de aan-

teekeningen der Minahassische onderwijzer, Mededelingen van wege het Nederlandsch Zendelinggenootschap, 38 : 62-86.

, 1894b, Verslag omtrent de zending onder de Karau-Bataks over 1893, Mededelingen van wege het Nederlandsch Zendelinggenootschap, 38 : 133-183.


InformationsAutres contributions de Uli Kozok

Pagination123124125126127128129130131132133134135136137138139140141142143

PlanManuscript A Manuscript B Transliteration and Translation of Mss. A and B References

IllustrationsManuscript ATable 1. DiacriticsTable 2. Unconventional Spelling in Ms. AManuscript B

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